Saturday, November 5, 2016

An Unjust Law

The reason why many of us stood against Bill 326 was because it was an unjust bill in that it targets institutions (the church).  As a result of suing the Church, innocent people will suffer when a parish closes down.  The bill would be just if it only targeted the individuals guilty of committing the crime.  

I do not want to see any parish closed down; however, the passage of this bill made that possible.  As Father Mike pointed out in the radio talk show, our parishioners will suffer and be devastated, but the church will continue to survive.  While it is true that the church will survive, it will come AFTER much suffering and devastation.  In other words, you suffer first before you go into recovery.  And it is innocent people who will feel this suffering and devastation, which makes Bill 326 an unjust bill.  

Archbishop Hon's idea of setting aside a trust fund is a good idea and avoids having to close down a parish.  However, this trust fund need to be built up. Leo Tudela's situation is already an open and shut case because the priest who molested him have admitted his guilt.  The fact that he does not remember Tudela is understandable due to his advanced age and therefore irrelevant. The Church can already settle a cost with Mr. Tudela without even going to court. The question is do we have enough in the trust fund to settle the cost?   

Below is a story about a parish in Boston that was closed down.  Parishioners fought against the closure of their parish for 12 long years.  That battle only ended this year.  So, yes.....the church will survive, but it must first go through a long and grueling suffering before recovery starts just as Father Mike said in his interview with Patti Arroyo.  And it is the innocent parishioners who will suffer. According to news report:

For the past 12 years, the church of St Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, near Boston, has not been empty for a single moment.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a group of parishioners has maintained a vigil inside the building to prevent its sale by the archdiocese of Boston, to help pay the Catholic church’s enormous bills relating to its long history of child sexual abuse.
Children have slept in the sacristy, meals have been eaten beneath the stained glass windows, planning meetings have been held in the pews, prayers said and candles lit.
But not for much longer. After the supreme court this week declined to hear an appeal against an earlier court ruling, the parishioners must now vacate the premises, and will hold a final farewell service on 29 May.
“We’re going to stay together, reach out and re-energise thousands of disenfranchised Catholics who no longer trust the church,” Jon Rogers, the group’s spokesman, told the Guardian. 
They were “incredibly disappointed” at the supreme court’s decision, he said. “We thought the higher up the legal ladder we travelled, the closer to the truth we’d get. But it seems like the judicial system still has a healthy fear of the Catholic church.” 
Possession of St Frances Xavier Cabrini, which sits in 30 acres of prime real estate overlooking the ocean about 25 miles south of Boston, will return to the archdiocese, which had sought to evict the parishioners as trespassers. 
In 2004, the church was put on a list of about 70 Catholic properties in and around Boston to be sold to help foot the bill to compensate the survivors of widespread sexual abuse by clergy. A year earlier, the archdiocese had agreed to pay $85m to settle almost 550 lawsuits. 
According to the archdiocese, St Frances Xavier Cabrini was placed on the closings list in response to declining attendance, fewer priests and changing demographics. It denied that the closure was connected to the sexual abuse crisis, saying legal settlement costs were largely met from insurance payments and the sale of an administration complex. 
The scale of church sexual abuse – and its cover-up – was coming to light thanks to a long investigation by the Boston Globe, recently dramatised in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight. Last year, the paper reported that at least 571 clergy within the archdiocese had been publicly accused of sexually abusing children. 
The scandal shook confidence in the church, and exposed how powerful it had become within the Boston establishment. Following the revelations, the proportion of Catholics regularly attending mass fell and donations to the church dwindled. 
“The archdiocese wanted to sell off churches to replenish its coffers which were being depleted by the sex abuse crisis,” said Rogers. “Our church was one of the most valuable. It really was a land grab.” 
But before archdiocese officials could lock worshipers out of St Frances Xavier Cabrini, one parishioner slipped inside and began an occupation that by this Wednesday, had clocked up 4,222 days. 
“We got organised to meet the challenge,” said Rogers. “We were prepared to jump through hoops of fire. We did our research, we ran processes and we shared with others how to do it. We went up against the archdiocese of Boston.” 
Occupations also began at around 10 other churches on the archdiocese’s sell-off list. One by one, protesters lost heart or legal cases, or both. But about 100 people who formed the core of The Friends of St Frances Xavier Cabrini kept going – raising funds, sewing quilts, holding services and fighting court battles. 
Legal arguments over the fate of the church were heard in US courts and at the Vatican’s supreme court. On Monday, the end of the road came when the US supreme court refused to hear an appeal by the parishioners against an earlier ruling that the archdiocese was the legal owner of the church and had the right to evict the occupiers. 
In a statement, archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said: “Given the denial of the Friends of St Frances Cabrini’s petition, we ask them to end their vigil and leave the property within 14 days.” 
He added that the archdiocese invited “those involved with the vigil to participate and join in the fullness of parish life”. 
That does not seem likely. “This church is being stolen from us, there’s no denying that. The archdiocese sees the value of property over the value of people,” said Rogers. 
“When we started this, we made two promises. The first was to exhaust every level of appeal available. We’ve fulfilled that. The second promise was that this community, that came together to fight to protect our spiritual home, would go on, with or without the archdiocese of Boston.”
The final service in 10 days’ time would be bittersweet, he said. “It’s the end of a long and arduous battle, but also the start of something new. This is what God wants us to do.” 

34 comments:

  1. If you rape little altar boys, you just don't sweep it under the rug or turn a blind eye to it. You have to pay the piper.

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    1. Dear Anonymous at 4:47 pm,

      The suffering of more innocent people in order to pay for the suffering of others is not justice....and never was.

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    2. Tell this to Bob Klitzkie who executed Archbishop Hon by sending him home and now he is already sharpening his machete against Archbishop Michael.

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  2. I would like to know the names of the senators who passed Bill 326!

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    1. Dear Anonymous at 4:53 pm,

      It was all the incumbent senators. It was a unanimous vote. The alleged victims played on their emotions, and the senators did not fully think about the consequences of the bill before they passed it.

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    2. There are some who were not present...

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    3. Dear Anonymous at 5:00 pm,

      Those who were not present already gave in their vote. That was announced in the news.

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  3. Dear Diana, try to think with the head of the future bishop. He will come here and find great distress. He'll ask about Public Law 33-187 (formerly bill 326-33). He wants to know who is responsible for that piece of legislation.

    Who is responsible, Diana? JW, CCOG, LFM, Tim Rohr, David Lujan, NCW leadership, Archbishop Apuron, Archbishop Hon, Senators Frank Blas, Frank Aguon, BJ Cruz, etc., Governor Calvo? Who is responsible? The fact is that the whole process that led to Public Law 33-187 cannot ever be undone. It remains part of the history of the Guam Catholic Church forever. Archbishop Michael will be greatly puzzled on this state of affairs caused by allegedly Catholic believers.

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    1. Not Catholic believers, law makers. Some senators are not catholic.

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    2. 1. Frank Blas proposed Bill 326. He is a Catholic, member of the CCOG.

      2. Frank Aguon championed Blas' bill and pushed it through the Senate. He is a Catholic.

      3. Governor Calvo quoted Jesus Christ to justify his signing Bill 326 into law. He is a Catholic.

      He had the audacity to pick the Scriptures to explain why he takes instruction from CCOG and Tim Rohr. It raises serious question when the highest ranking political officer on island takes instruction from and acts in concert with unabashed enemies of the Catholic Church whose admitted goal is to bankrupt the archdiocese.

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  4. I hope all those who help pass 326 will go to confession reconcile with the Church.souls in danger.

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    1. Corruption, corruption, it reeks of corruption! These politicians want to be dirty rich from the fallout of lawsuits against the Catholic church.

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  5. I WILL NOT VOTE FOR ANY IMCUMBENT SENATOR!

    I don't care if they came to my uncle's funeral!

    LET'S MAKE IT A C L E A N S W E E P!

    Vote them out to teach them a lesson!

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  6. Where were you when it was up for deliberation. Where were you? All NCW/ RMS peeps did not shoe up except for Zoiltan. Now you are to be blame for it.Silence is complicit to maintaining the status quo.

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    1. I agree. If you were not at the public hearings to voice your opposition then why bother now. peter palomo

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    2. It is like the AmWay debauchery. They build a big pyramidal cover-up to hide behind and disguise what they do. By the time you recognize that it is about your money, you cannot escape, the pyramid is falling on and crushing you.

      Great job, Timmy! You should have been behind bars for your AmWay business for many years already. Without parole!

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  7. These old ladies were fooled again to picket against Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes even before he had arrived to Guam! Lol.

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  8. It is time to expose those who want to expel the Neocatechumenal Way from Guam. These people yell to us to leave the island. They threaten to shut down the NCW and kick out its members from the parishes. They breath violence, destruction and physical brutality. They want our churches to go bankrupt.

    Folks, these people are lousy politicians who miserably failed in the arena of politics. Now, they come to the Catholic church and want to force us to accept their obnoxious political machinations. We won't! Dirty politics has no place in our faith life. We have to say a resounding NO to these people so that they understand.

    Dirty politics operates with coercion and intimidation. There is no human vice that they do not employ to justify their dirty ways. We see this clearly at JungleWatch which is a political outlet of hatred and mental terror. Decent people should never go that low that they listen to these lousy politicians.

    These people use uninhibited power and corruption to blackmail our leaders into submission to their political agenda. But hello, the Catholic church is NOT a political entity! We have to reject these attempts of politicizing church matters. Jesus Christ has never said you should act like a corrupt politician and hate your sisters and brothers.

    It is time to stand up for what Catholics believe. It is time to eradicate hatred and intimidation. It is time to shake of the lame submission to unethical bullies. It is time to stop violence and mental terror unleashed against peaceful believers. It is time to stand up for the purity and dignity of the Church of Jesus Christ!

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    1. Dear Zoltan,

      Humility is the best weapon to use against such enemies. Stooping to the level of the jungle will make us the same as they, and probably even worse. Pray for them because they have been misled.

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    2. take up arms comrade Zoltan!

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    3. Zoltan, you are not humble! It is not the way to talk to fellow Catholics. According to Chuck White, whose interest area is Catholic theology, NCW is an heretical Protestant-Jewish sect masquerading as a Catholic movement inside the church. Can you disprove this statement? Chuck has completed every research and compared the teaching of the neo to the true Catholic Catechism in his blog.

      His conclusion is based on the best Catholic theology of famous theologians. Please, read Chuck's blog, because you cannot disprove anything he laid out in all detail there in a very intelligent manner! I challenge you to disprove anything if you can, but you cannot.

      Therefore we don't need presbyters replacing our priests and "celebrations" replacing our masses. Your jumping and dancing around the sacred altar of the sacrificial banquet of our Lord is distasteful. This is the reason we have to ask Archbishop Michael if Guam needs the neo? For what purpose? Why don't you go back to Spain?

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    4. Dear Anonymous at 8:43 am,

      I disproved Mr. White's false teaching. See the weblink below:

      http://neocatechemunal.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-jewish-passover.html

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    5. If Chuck writings are Catholic, I shall become a Muslim! Give us a break,,,, Father, forgive him because he does not know what he is saying....

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    6. Diana, I cannot say you disproved anything. We don't talk about the center of worship being the temple or not the temple. It is irrelevant. We talk about the Protestant and Jewish elements of the neo worship.

      1. You celebrate Eucharist in non-sacred places with no holy statues or icons present. Perhaps the Kiko-Madonna only, with no smile of Mary or the little Jesus.

      2. You claim presence of God in home baked bread. It is only a symbolic presence and not Real Presence. This is how Protestant you are. How can a home baked bread be the Real Presence?

      3. You have the Menorah and Jewish cantors on your session singing Jewish folklore. You Jewish folk-dance and Shalem Alehe. Don't deny it, I heard. You call God Yahweh. Also Shema Israel is a hymn of Judaism.

      4. You don't sacrifice Jesus. This is the main problem. You say you cannot hurt God, so you don't sacrifice. You smile when Jesus is dying. This is a Protestant heresy per Chuck.

      5. You say your right hand does not know what your left hand does. This is a lie. Anonymous money goes into laundering. No accounting, deriving the parishes. You do not donate to anyone except neo. Chuck established property grab and real estate transaction from the poor.

      6. Your concept of sin is Jewish. No absolution, no forgiveness, no salvation. Jesus is only a prophet with no salvific power. It is very Protestant. Your believe your sin remains forever exposing you to torture, blackmail and intimidation.

      7. You say everyone is a sinner. In fact, it only your catechisms who are sinner because they teach you the Jewish sin.

      8. Saying that Jesus had an attraction to Mary Magdalene is a Protestant sacrilege. Jesus was beyond bodily desires and the sin of flesh. It is only you who claim Jesus was a sinner. We reject that.

      9. You don't educate priests only presbyters. A presbyter is a Protestant pastor. You don't teach them the Seven Sacraments only two.

      10. There is no transubstantiation in the neo Eucharist. It is because your presbyter's faith in Jesus is symbolic and the becoming of the bread into Jesus is just not happening. You have to believe very firmly and strongly, otherwise you lose it.

      I just listed a few. I wonder if Diana permits discussion of these findings.

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    7. Dear Anonymous at 11:44 am,

      I once had a discussion with a Protestant who accused Catholics of worshipping Mary. The dialogue went like this:

      Diana: I do not worship Mary.
      Protestant: Yes, you do. You worship Mary.
      Diana: No, I do not.
      Protestant: Yes, you do.

      When people come in with the preconceived notion that Catholics worship Mary, no matter how much we deny it will not matter. When you start your discussion with an accusation, you have already killed any possibility of civil dialogue.

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    8. I did not talk about worshiping Mary.

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    9. Diana, are you seriously saying that none of the above 1-10 applies to the neo?! I have evidence for all of these. So do not deny, please!

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    10. Dear Anonymous at 6:40 pm,

      It is obvious that you have already YOUR version of what truth is and not interested in dialogue. You have already made up your mind regardless of the truth. So, why are you here?

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    11. Diana, please allow me to respond to Anon 1144am, even if we have gone over those issues repeatedly.
      I will respond according to each item.

      1. The Eucharist(Mass) is celebrated in SMALL communities with the exception of the Paschal Vigil. In the regular Saturday night Eucharist the communities often opt to use an alternate room rather than the main church building. Not only to save on utilities but more importantly the Liturgy is very intimate and it makes no sense to seat 20-30 people in a room designed for 200-300. There have been many instances where the main church is used for the bigger groups, as is during the Easter Vigils when all the parish communities combine. Priority is given to the parish, so when the scheduling of the different vigils conflict, most communities would opt for the social hall, gymnasium or a hotel banquet room. The main church though is the most desired for the larger celebrations.
      2. The bread used for the Eucharistic Celebration is baked at home but only following the strict guidelines set forth by the church. Special attention is given to this, those who prepare this are always being scrutinized to ensure that the substance remains valid. Because special care is given to its validity this should cause you to finally believe that the NCW does not believe in only its symbolism but more importantly its True Presence.
      3. We only have catholic cantors who sing during our celebrations. There are many songs that have been adapted to use in the communities but this does not take away from the liturgy it only reminds us of our close relationship/history with judaism.
      4.Jesus died ONCE and FOR ALL on that moment on calvary. We share in this memorial at every Eucharist. It is not that we are taught not to sacrifice instead it is the great opposite. We are taught to sacrifice with our whole heart and to truly mean it.
      5. We give charitably and cheerfully. Not letting the right know what the left is doing. In this manner, many times brothers and sisters are indeed helping alot of people but without them even knowing where the help came from. What we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. We should all be trying our best to store up treasures in heaven. When you give in plane sight to someone, that someone will instantly acknowledge the gift. It is done, your reward has been paid on earth. When you give anonymously, how can they thank you? this treasure is stored in heaven for you.
      6. We believe that Jesus is very merciful. Despite our repeated sins, he forgives. How do we know this? Because we approach him, through the sacrament of penance seeking his mercy and forgiveness. Why do we do this? because we know that salvation comes from him.
      7.Everyone is a sinner. plain and simple
      8. Jesus was tempted to sin as much as we are but yet he was excluded from sin. Being tempted and actually sinning are two different things. refer to the CCC.
      9. The title presbyter is no different from the title priest. They are one and the same. All priests receive the same formation, all are entrusted to the church with all its sacraments not excluding any.
      10. We believe that at the Eucharist the substance of Bread and Wine are turned into the species of Body and Blood. This is the source and summit of the catholic faith.

      Pas!
      -Jokers Wild

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    12. Dear Anonymous 8:43 a.m., are you kidding? Chuck White;s copy and paste blog has no relevant information about the Neocatechumenal Way wahtsoever. He is only recycling old blogs from Europe that he does not even understand at the first place. He only wants to harm people by reproducing anti-Neocatechumenal blog entries. These blog have been frozen for over a decade and time has passed on their content for good.

      By the way, I am not a Spaniard! Why do you think I should go back to Spain?!

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    13. Dear Anonymous 11:44 p.m. your list of charges is a mockery of Catholic thinking.

      1. Every place in sacred when the Holy Spirit is present.
      2. The Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist does not depend on who and where happened to bake the bread.
      3. Shema Israel symbolizes our attachment to God, the same God of the Old and the New Covenant!
      4. The sacrificial nature of the Eucharist is carried out by the Eucharistic celebration itself.
      5. Giving to the poor is a duty of all Christians.
      6. The absolution of sins at confession does not mean your sin does not exist anymore. It is forgiven but still has the potential to capture you again. This is expressed by saying we are sinners.
      7. Our catechists do not teach "Jewish sin". Could you elaborate, please, because I cannot understand what you are trying to say?
      8. Jesus was free from the original sin and remained free from all sins during his earthly life.
      9. A presbyter is a Catholic priest.
      10. A consecrated priest has the faculty to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, by God. Our masses are celebrated by consecrated Catholic priests.

      I hope this helped you to shed your prejudices and discard your bias against the Neocatechumenal Way.

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    14. 1. The Catholic Church designates certain areas as consecrated spaces for liturgical worship. If it was a simple as "Every place in sacred when the Holy Spirit is present", then it wouldn't bother. The NCW use non-consecrated spaces almost exclusively. There is a reason for that, and it has nothing to do with how many are present or whether someone else is using the Church.

      2. "The bread used for the Eucharistic Celebration is baked at home but only following the strict guidelines set forth by the church."
      No, by Kiko. There is more care taken in the baking of the bread than in the reception and consumption of the Sacrament. I have personally witnessed NCW members and priests dropping portions of the Holy Sacrament on the ground, and in fact the priest brushed the crumbs off his vestments onto the floor.

      3. The NCW is predominantly an Old-Testament Jewish sect. Hence the Menorah, the Jewish songs (music and words), the "eye for an eye" mentality, and the adoration of the modern Jews. We have heard on this blog the belief that the Jews are saved by being jews (regardless of their religious adherence, but purely by genes), and that it is only the "gentiles" that need Jesus Christ.

      4. The NCW Eucharist is not a sacrifice. Joker's Wild even misunderstands what this criticism means, as he refers to the sacrificial attitude of the people, not to the sacrifice of the priest (Christ). The "rubrics" of the NCW Eucharist indicated that the NCW does not have any interest in the sacrificial nature of the Mass, but only in the Resurrection.

      5. It doesn't matter how you frame it, the truth is that money in the NCW is off the books, mainly cash, goes unreported and is accumulated in vast sums. The lack of reporting through the parish shows that the claim that the NCW is implemented and "supervised" through and by the parish, is a lie.

      6. Anon said "Your concept of sin is Jewish. No absolution, no forgiveness, no salvation", and then Zoltan said "The absolution of sins at confession does not mean your sin does not exist anymore." Zoltan is wrong. Absolution means the sin is wiped away (the consequences of the sin may remain of course). Sin is horizontal in the NCW not vertical. As "God cannot be offended by Sin" is the principle in the NCW. I have personally witnessed people being accused by catechists and priests (publically) over past sins that have already been confessed. As anon said, they are vulnerable to blackmail, extortion, the violation of the internal forum and manipulation.

      7. In the NCW, your sin is against the people (not God) and forgiveness comes from the community.

      8. The NCW teaching on Jesus Christ is confusing, ambiguous and serves a greater purpose ie to extol and edify the community. The Community is God, in the NCW rendering.

      9. If it is as simple as "A presbyter is a Catholic priest", then call them "priests", like the rest of the Catholic world. You call them presbyters because you wish to make a distinction. Priets offer sacrifices - that is the entire purpose of the priest, but Kiko teaches that Christianity has no priest (or altar, or sacred space, or sacrifice).

      10. If you firmly believed Jesus Christ was present body and blood, soul and divinity, in front of you in Mass, you would get down on your knees and worship him. But you don't. You practice a different communion, and that is why you are in a different communion.

      Hope this helps.

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    15. Dear Anonymous at 11:59 am,

      This is why I do not bother entertaining your comments. I allowed the comments of Jokers Wild and Zoltan to respond, but as anyone can see.....you already came here with a preconceived judgement and are not interested in dialogue or in learning about the truth. Your pre-conceived judgments will no longer be posted because the conversation will only go around in circles.

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    16. Diana,

      It was worth a shot. We tried.

      Anon 1159am is very narrow minded. I am willing to reiterate and break down piece by piece my reply towards the initial commenter at 1144am Nov 7 but Im pretty sure its a lost cause, same attacks time and time again solely based on gossip. If only they were present they would see and hear the complete opposite of their criticisms.

      You can simply collect all their criticisms and place it under one tab and people will be able to see how repetitive it is, almost as if they are just copying and pasting their comments from other blogs against the church.

      Pas!
      -Jokers Wild

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